The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) has expressed readiness to intensify the campaign for the adoption of clean cooking solutions with sensitisation on the use of clean cookstoves to all the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The director general, ECN, Dr Mustapha Abdullahi said this at the closing ceremony of a two-day training on gender sensitisation organised for women by the Commission, which ended in Abuja on Thursday.
Abdullahi said this was a commitment that the Commission had made to reduce carbon emissions and also try to solve problems of energy in order to reduce the impact of climate change which Nigeria has committed to.
The campaign, which was flagged off by the ECN boss in early March in Kurudu, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is to help the rural women with the new technology that is more efficient and also reduces cost.
According to Abdullahi, “We have just used the Kurudu axis at the pilot stage, and we aim to go around the entire six geopolitical zones with the same sensitisation.
“It is a commitment that the Energy Commission has made already that we will try to reduce carbon emissions and also try to solve problems of energy in all these ramifications.
“My hope is that we will go back home with a cleaner mind that we have solved at least the problem that we have in domestic cooking appliances.
“I want to say that the sensitisation does not end here. This is just the beginning. And that is also just a pilot stage.”
He also advised the women not to hesitate to ask questions and give feedback so that there would be improvement as technology evolves every day.
“We will be hoping to get feedback from you people, so that we will hopefully improve on what we have here today. As you are all aware, technology evolves.
“So we hope to improve in the technology that we have actually adopted to get this cookstove improved,” he said.
Speaking on the sensitisation efforts, Mrs Ikeme Chinwe, Deputy Director, Department of Energy Training and Manpower Development, urged the women to take knowledge home and also share by sensitising others to key into it.
Also speaking, Ngozi Uche, the Women Leader, lauded the Commission for the initiative even as she admonished it to do more to ensure more women in the country experience the gesture.
